The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Consumer items are sometimes delivered to the end consumer in packaging. The consumer item can be, for example, a cigarette box or medication package or clothing, such as, for example, tennis shoes, with the exception of telephone items, such as prepaid cards. These consumer items are sometimes offered to the end consumer or consumers under a brand name. The end consumer associates special quality notions with the brand name or desires to acquire a consumer item of a specific brand based on other considerations. The manufacturers of brand name items, but also the end consumers, are sometimes exposed to forgeries, that is, corresponding consumer items that are not marketed by the appropriate original company, but as forgeries/pirated products under the pertaining brand name of the legitimate manufacturer. It is sometimes impossible for the end consumer to differentiate an original product from a counterfeit pirated product. Another basic problem may also be that it is very difficult for the manufacturers of consumer goods to design customer retentions systems, since the end consumer is frequently unknown to them.